User reviews

Well, the cover for this 2021 horror movie wasn't really screaming - pardon the pun - of overly impressive horror movie. Yet, I still opted to sit down and watch it here late in 2022, as I happened to stumble upon it. Now, I hadn't heard about the movie when I sat down to watch it, so I didn't know what I was in for, aside from it being a horror movie.

I will say that writer and director William Mark McCullough was definitely on to something here, because there was potential in the storyline. However, the narrative was just too slow paced and the movie didn't have enough of exciting things happening to keep it interesting. And that made for a somewhat tedious viewing experience.

The acting performances in "A Savannah Haunting" were good, so it really was a shame that the actors and actresses didn't have a more compelling and exciting script to bring to life on the screen.

Visually then this movie was adequate. It is a movie that makes use of simplistic effects to layer the movie with scares. It works out well enough, but the special effects and practical effects could only do so much to lift up the monotonous and mundane pacing and subpar script.

"A Savannah Haunting" definitely had potential to be a good and proper horror movie, but sadly it was butchered by the pacing and the lack of excitement.

My rating of "A Savannah Haunting" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.

There was some potential here for sure and it was lightly entertaining, but know that there is almost zero originality in this one. It felt like an amalgamation of every horror trope and cliché that you've ever seen being used as building blocks to create a generally mediocre film.

Now, while that sounds harsh, this wasn't totally unsuccessful. It held my attention enough and I was intrigued by said potential. I think two things that largely held it back were it's run time and the acting.

This one definitely dragged and I think with some editing and shortening providing for a more concise run, it would've been more successful. Also, the acting was generally unsuccessful and unconvincing. The stilted performances all around were distracting and pulled you out of the story. I think if you are able to look past these two major variables there is potential to be had.

This was mostly sitting at a 4 for me but I think it was recovered a bit largely due to the third act. It ended up becoming a bit more interesting and a bit more spooky. 4.5 rounding up to a 5 and I would only recommend if you have patience and a love for truly indi cinema.

Plot

A family loses their young daughter in a tragic drowning and moves to Savannah, only to be haunted by her presence in their new home.

Cast

Not familiar with anyone involved but the writer is the director who is a character in the movie and also the person who has allegedly experienced all these paranormal instances.

Verdict

I'm not generally a guy who appreciates ghost themed movies, the reason? They tend to be the most trope laden cliched sub genre of all, and also a one used by those with minimal budgets as they don't require much on screen. A chair falls over by itself, a book falls of a shelf, mysterious noises, it's all very cheap.

Furthermore they often get pretentious and play the "Based on real events" card and I just can't take it seriously. Spoiler alert, no that thing didn't happen grow up. A Savannah Haunting doesn't just play that card, it plays the whole deck an doubles down by being made by the guy it happened to, in the house it supposedly happened and they spouted rhetoric about a haunting on set during production and staff members threatening to leave because of them. Yeah, right.

A Savannah Haunting trips, face plants into every imaginable generic horror trope get's up and goes butt over head back over again with some dreadful quality, mediocre performances and a finale that you will see coming from three continents over.

Rants

I'm going to break this to you gently, rip that bandaid off in one single smooth motion. There are no such things as ghosts, no spectres, no poltergeists, no phantoms, no things that go bump in the night. In the nicest way possible, grow up.

The Good

Considering the budget it wasn't the worst looking

The Bad

Cliche and trope ridden Couldn't be less original Hit and miss cast Very predictable Based on "Real" events in a supernatural movie is just silly.

I'm sure there are some that will find this movie entertaining and while it wasn't a complete bore, personally, I've seen much better.

There's nothing new here, surprise, that you haven't seen before. It's amazing that these derivative movies continue to get made. Perhaps it's because there will always be an audience regardless of the lack of originality or the hope that this one will finally be different.

These are not spoilers as most viewers will arrive at the same conclusions or be left asking the same questions. Why always a doll and one that won't go away? Is this doll Annabelle's sister? Were the Warrens too busy to check this house out? Could the realtor be sued for not telling the prospective buyers about the homes haunted past? I mean, who would actually buy a home like that if they knew? And what's with the nude pool scene? That seemed so out of place and it really went nowhere. It left me thinking that the writer didn't have a long enough script so he threw that in there to make up the difference.

Act 3 raises the tension bar some but lacks any closure. It leaves us asking more than one question. Not a very satisfying denouement. I've watched other horror movies several times but this one, won't get a second viewing from me.

This is a hallmark "thriller" packaged as a true story, which it isn't. Capitalizing on a creepy, poorly decorated house in the South does not a horror movie make. Every trope and kitchen sink was thrown in, including a super weird teen lesbian relationship that had no bearing on the story. It just came across as a horny middle aged writer desperate for some young girl on girl porn. Major ick. The storyline was tedious, especially when characters don't behave and respond in rational ways. There's the classic medium character that keeps getting rebuffed, even though a 5 minute conversation would have cleared up everything. And don't get me started on the ending. It tried to channel Amityville but just ended up with a cheesy and incoherent mess. The bloody demon at the end with the cliché stilted walk was ridiculous, much like everything else in this movie. Not sure why a basement door was located in the boys bedroom closet, but sure why not. Funny how no one noticed it until the last 10 minutes of the movie. And we're left not knowing what happened to the family which is a total cop-out, but the mom gets to live as a catatonic humming idiot. Ugh. The 10 star reviews are obviously fake, but were more entertaining to read than this was to watch.

"A Savannah Haunting" may be derivative but it's quite an enjoyable slow burn.

Yes the film is quite derivative; it takes tidbits from all the horror films we've seen before. There's some rough acting in parts too though overall it's decent.

One thing that's nice is the setting. The film is actually filmed where they say. A lot of times Hollywood says the actors are in one place and film 5 states away. The haunted house in Savannah is a good choice.

Where this film succeeded is it takes the suspense built in the first 3/4ths of the film and uses it to plunge into a terrifying ending that concludes with gusto.

Worth a watch for sure for any fans of the genre, and one of the scarier films I've seen in a while.

Complete joke, This movie was unbearable to watch but I stuck it out to the end to see what happened but NOTHING MADE SENSE. Do not trust these reviews!! They are clearly fake The acting was horrible.

The storyline was pathetic There was nothing scary about this movie whatsoever I actually found myself laughing at how horrible it was hahah I'm a massive horror fan and I will give anything a chance as there's so many hidden gems but THIS WAS NOT!! One of them.

I saw one review compare it to amityville and I wanted to throw my head through a wall.

If I could I would give this movie 0/10 do not waste your time.

I attempted to watch this train wreck of a film or video I should say. Filmed in the hallmark channel style. I was disappointed and disturbed by the horrific acting, odd camera placement and shoehorned "relationship?", child *olestation scene perpetuated by a trespasser. These unrealistic, questionable situations made for a difficult watch. I is so sad how current 'filmmakers' lack basic storytelling skills. Every story seems to evolve into an opportunity to parade their personal political views. The african american angle was truly awful. The film comes off as nothing more than someone's effort to co-op any and everything 'popular', with millennials, into a mediocre story that fails to inspire anything but disgust and revulsion. So many unanswered questions, so few original ideas. I guess the film was a commercial for people to visit that little southern town? There certainly seems to be a disconnect between what the original vision was? And what someone else wanted to the film to be. The script could have used some more work it seems. And the underage filth could have been left on the cutting room floor. I can't imagine what a film like this could do for the talent involved. I wouldn't think much. A straight to video production at its best.

What a load of rubbish! Absolute pants. Don't waste your time. The lesbian scenes are cringe and laughable. I get more of a fright opening my bills. I was intrigued that it supposedly was filmed in the original house. But that's not enough to endure this. It could have potential but it's all lost on a poor script, direction, acting. There are far many better horror films out there. I fast forwarded the end to put myself out of misery. These 10/10 ratings obviously were watching a different film! I'm unsure how movies like these get produced and who has enough money to waste on producing this drivel.

There is not a single redeeming quality to this movie. There is not the tiniest little glimmer or scrap of originality, creativity, though, or lasting impression to be found. I am actually impressed at how every. Single. Thing. Was some kind of horror joke stereotype. I'm not just referring to the plot, but every camera shot, every setting, every character, line, "big twist reveal", even the line delivery and the expressions of the actors is somehow the exact same thing that is in a thousand other horror movies. Once again, I'm almost surprised that they were able to take every single trope from every single horror movie and combine it into one 1hr 40min string of cliche, after cliche that felt like being slapped across the face with a wet fish with every horribly overdone line, character, and camera shot that you feel you've seen hundreds of times before. It's such drivel that I genuinely considered it to be satire poking fun at all the tropes that so many horror movies use. But unfortunately I don't think so. They either really committed to the bit or everyone involved is so lacking of self awareness that they somehow can't realize that they've basically made nothing. Nothing as in something that is just purely devoid of anything interesting. I don't even know that I believe someone actually wrote this movie. I think they may have just rounded up some actors, handed out zero script, said two words to them all, "haunted house", and did everything in one take while everyone just kept saying the most generic lines off the top of their head. The only way you could ever have even a sliver of an enjoyable time with this movie is to get some friends together and just mystery science theater it, making fun of it throughout. Maybe make some "generic horror trope" bingo cards that would get filled up after just ten minutes. But even then it's still hard to sit through, and really I say just do not waste your time.

Amateurish in every aspect, from the awful acting to the cliched events and to the derivative writing...all the way to the embarrassing direction. The only positive thing about this is that it does eventually get to the end credits. But it's an exhausting chore to get there. The creator of this mess is obviously more in awe of himself than anyone else involved or any viewer, and some of his choices are certainly questionable...especially the lesbian scene that comes from nowhere and seems to serve no purpose in being there whatsoever other than to give him some sort of thrill. Seems very icky and sleazy. Avoid this at all costs.

I thought it was a really neat idea to make a movie and an actual house where the Director grew up and had paranormal experiences. Although it was a fictional movie based on true events, it was neat to see the actual house and envision what must have happened there over the years.

Horror movies nowadays as a whole seem to not be quite as good as they were a long time ago. This isn't the greatest movie I have ever seen in my life, but I do think it is really good and entertaining. I would watch it again, I also liked when they shared their experiences at the end in the credits.

Definitely worth a watch.

Truly terrible approximate writing I had as the impression that they had written it on the spot, that is, while the scenes turned, let's start by saying that it is certainly a wasted opportunity because it was enough to write something simpler that would certainly have had better results and would have avoided all the confusion in the final of the film, I do not understand even because after a start let's say good for the first 30 minutes the film for all the minutes remaining does not bring anything interesting or involving the ghost that I see. I know what he hits with the events that happened in the house I don't know the story well so I could be wrong, however the film after the first 30 minutes as I said quite discreet remains bogged down without proposing anything interesting and then ending with a net cut that brings only other confusions, the screenplay seems almost a draft not or of the written notes so without too many pretensions !!